James Skemp's StrivingLife

A quick introduction to .NET extension methods

In the 5+ years that I've been doing .NET I've been created my own extension methods twice. I was already aware that LINQ was built on extension methods, but I very rarely found myself needing to extend something that I didn't already have the code for.

So, when I was asked if I wanted to review Instant .NET 4.5 Extension Methods How-to, I thought this would be a good way to make sure I didn't have any incorrect assumptions, and see if there was anything I was missing.

This is my first 'Instant' book from Packt. From what I can tell the purpose is to get you quickly started with whatever the book is on. Since it's my first, I'm not sure if this is unique to the book or not, but each of the sections has a title and then a classification of either 'Must know,' 'Should know,' or 'Become an expert.' Honestly, while the length of this book didn't require it, I like this idea, since it allows you to easily dig into the required sections first, and then come back in your own time to read the others.

Unfortunately, in this particular case there was one 'Should know' that was after the 'Become an expert' section. Otherwise, the sections were grouped. It's unfortunate not only because it breaks the flow (minor), but because it gives a suggestion on how to group your extensions. I would have much rather seen this as the very first in the 'Should know' section, but I may be bias since I like having commonly held conventions.

In regards to the actual content, it's about what I expected. Each section has a short introduction about what will be shown, then sections to get ready, how to do it (code), how it works, and then occasionally additional information. The examples are straightforward, and consist of relatively few lines of code (which makes sense for what's being covered).

After reading through the book I found that my knowledge of extension methods wasn't lacking. I did like the technical explanation of how the compiler picks up on these, which also made the section I noted above about placement of extensions the most beneficial to me.

I can recommend this book to someone who wants to quickly learn about extension methods. Someone who's made their own will probably find nothing new here, with the exception of the section on best practices. An intermediate user (has created one or two), is probably in the same boat as the advanced user.

In my particular case I received an electronic copy of the book for review. I've personally moved to electronic versions of my books as much as possible, in particular PDFs over any other electronic format. While I read a PDF version of the book (available for purchase on the Packt Publishing site), I don't see any crazy formatting or graphics that would keep me away from the Kindle version. Either way, I'd steer more towards the electronic versions of the book as the print edition price suggests that they may have had a limited run, with even the publishers site pushing the electronic version.

Overall, I rate Instant .NET 4.5 Extension Methods How-to 4 of 5 stars, for a beginner. Extension methods aren't too difficult, so a beginner could easily know what they need to after reading this book, and the best practices could even get them ahead.

Reboot: Successful

I've never bought a Tomb Raider game before this one. Actually, I did buy the Lara Croft PSN/Xbox Live game, but that's not really a Tomb Raider game in the classic sense. I also received a free copy of Tomb Raider: Underworld via PlayStation Plus, but I've yet to finish it, and don't have much drive to.

However, Tomb Raider is not only the first Lara Croft game I've paid full price for, but one of a very few games I've picked up almost immediately after it was released. And it wasn't a bad decision.

After playing Tomb Raider I not only cared about Lara's story, I want it to continue. I want to pick up Tomb Raider 2 (or whatever they call it).

So it has a good story. How about the game play? I dare say that it's taken what Uncharted has done and stepped it up a level. Done what Darksiders II should have done to successfully follow up Darksiders' Zelda-like features. It is a sandbox game that knows when to stop expanding, and when to draw the story to a close.

The only issue I really have with the game is the multiplayer. Trophies/achievements give you an idea of what the developers were thinking. Almost a third of the trophies/achievements for this game are in multiplayer. However, the multiplayer is, at best, lackluster. And with the announcement that future DLC will only be for the multiplayer, I'm disappointed they felt they had to throw MP into an otherwise solid game.

Despite this, it takes nothing away from the core experience. Tomb Raider is a solid game, and I found it to be well worth the $60, and at less than that it would be a steal.

5 of 5 stars (or 9 out of 10).

A squad-based shooter with an excellent story

I really bought the SOCOM 4 Full Deployment Edition because at the time it was the cheapest way to quick up everything to get started with PlayStation Move. And in fact I only played it for a short time before I moved on to other games. I've since tried to get back into it, but since I had issues getting the game running again (odd patch issues), I haven't done so.

So when Spec Ops: The Line was available for free for PlayStation Plus, and I saw that it was similar to SOCOM (3rd-person, with squad-based gameplay) I was intrigued. A quick look at a YouTube review which noted the story this game borrows from, and I was interested.

That was Saturday morning. By Saturday night I had finished the game on the second hardest difficulty (the highest initially unlocked) and just picked the remaining trophies that I'll grab this morning.

Outside of thinking that the main character's name is Nathan Drake (same voice actor), I have to say Spec Ops: The Line was a great choice, and something I would have absolutely paid money for.

Despite being a squad-based shooter, the game plays farily fast, with the 15 chapters and epilogue flying by.

The story is top rate, because of where it draws inspiration from, and as the game progresses you really feel it, especially during some of the decisions you're allowed to make. There's a couple obvious points where you know how it's going to end, but despite that it was still interesting to see how it got there, and what happened to the characters when it did.

The voice actors across the board are extremely good, with the voices matching well how the characters should actually be feeling had this really happened to them.

There is a multiplayer component, but I didn't bother with it. After the fact I actually read that an individual tied to the game was disappointed in it, and felt it was needlessly tacked on.

There's no doubt in my mind that I'm giving Spec Ops: The Line 5 of 5 stars. The story is top-notch, and it doesn't needlessly waste your time by dragging things out.